Dragons coach Shane Flanagan had the local derby against Cronulla “marked in the calendar for a while”.

A week earlier, he said the Sharks were a team he was “really interested in beating”.

But when the full-time siren rang out at PointsBet Stadium on Sunday, the Sharks had mustered a 20-10 victory over Flanagan - the only man to coach Cronulla to a premiership - and his Dragons.

Flanagan said it was a “self-inflicted” loss.

“We were just awful. Never completed sets, never got to our kick and then when we did, we didn’t nail them down in the corners,” Flanagan said.

“Frustrating game from our perspective. Didn’t give ourselves a chance because of the errors we made. You can’t do that against a good-quality side. I thought we were in there for most of it, but some of the errors we made were self-inflicted penalties.”

The Sharks lacked the finishing touches they have shown several times this season, but a try to cult hero Tom Hazelton in the 64th minute was enough to seal the win.

After leading the Sharks at half-time, the Dragons struggled to finish their sets in the second half, and Flanagan said the team spent so much time defending, that they were too tired to attack when they had the ball.

“I got a football team that can compete against the best teams in there, but we’ve got to give ourselves a chance, and we didn’t give ourselves a chance today,” he said.